Evan Lin went downstairs with his backpack and headed north of the city.
"There's a public cemetery up north. The Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll is a yin-type artifact, so it's worth checking out. Maybe I can refine something there."
With that thought, Evan picked up his pace.
He moved quickly through the streets, not bothering with a taxi, slipping down obscure alleyways like a shadow.
Capitalview North Cemetery was where most of the city's ancestral spirit tablets were kept.
The old man at the gate was still dozing off as Evan silently slipped inside.
Reaching the center of the cemetery, Evan glanced around. It was eerily quiet.
He found an empty spot, sat cross-legged, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stilled his mind—sinking into a state of deathly calm.
At the same time, Evan guided a thin stream of spiritual qi from his body, letting it spread over him in a faint white glow.
Seconds ticked by. Suddenly, faint breezes began to swirl around Evan.
Soon, strange ghostly faces began to appear around Evan, each one opening its bloody maw and staring at him with greedy drool.
These ghosts were the restless spirits haunting the cemetery, lurking here to hunt for fresh yin energy from newly placed spirit tablets.
Now, seeing the spiritual qi Evan released, their eyes glowed with hunger—the qi was fatally attractive to them.
As time passed, more and more ghost faces crowded around Evan. To them, he seemed completely lifeless—just another corpse.
They prowled back and forth beside him, wary and watching each other.
Finally, one ghost couldn't resist any longer. It lunged at Evan, mouth wide, trying to swallow all his spiritual qi in a single gulp.
That one move set off the whole crowd—every ghost face seemed to get the signal and, like a raging wind, they all rushed at Evan.
"It's not much, but it should be enough to help the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll recover its power."
Evan murmured to himself, eyes still closed. Just before the first ghost could devour his qi, he drew it all back into his body.
Then Evan pointed with one hand, and the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll shot out from his backpack, unfurled in midair, revealing the three peerless Maiden Spirits painted on it.
In midair, the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll erupted with black mist, radiating a domineering aura. Centered on Evan, tornado-like vortices formed within a twenty-meter radius, sweeping up countless ghost faces and hurling them toward the scroll.
Roar!
The ghost faces tried to flee, but the powerful pull was irresistible. Screeching, they were dragged by the tornadoes straight into the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll.
The three Maiden Spirits on the scroll suddenly lit up, bursting out from the artwork. Mouths wide, they grabbed the ghost faces by the handful and devoured them all.
"Holy crap, what the hell is going on!"
The old cemetery guard, dozing in his booth, was jolted awake by the raging wind. He fell off his chair in fright, scrambled up, and peered out the window—only to see the cemetery whipped by near-tangible storms.
Terrified, he watched until the wind finally died down and everything went quiet. Only then did he grab his flashlight and nervously patrol the grounds, but after searching everywhere, he found nothing out of the ordinary.
Evan left the cemetery and headed straight home.
The three Maiden Spirits, now greatly restored, floated happily behind Evan, their faces full of joy and growing reverence.
The next day.
When Evan arrived at school, plenty of students pointed and whispered about him. Some girls treated him like the plague, hurrying away as if just being seen by Evan was bad luck.
This was all fallout from Leo Liu’s speech yesterday afternoon. Apparently, some people now thought Evan was mixed up with street punks.
Rumors spread like wildfire. Evan didn’t bother explaining—arguing with idiots was just a waste of his time.
The whole day passed quietly. No teachers tried to mess with Evan, and every student gave him a wide berth.
Between classes, Evan happened to bump into Lynn Chen, who was coming out of the office carrying assignment books. She just glanced at him, turned away calmly, and walked off without stopping.
These days, Lynn had repeatedly rejected Eric Yu’s invitations, giving the excuse that she wanted to focus on the college entrance exam. Eric was helpless—and even angrier at Evan. But he didn’t dare try anything, so he poured all his frustration into studying and practice exams.
Eric’s thinking was simple. He was already a celebrity with a wealthy family, so as long as his grades improved, he’d get into a top university with Lynn and finally be together with her.
As for Evan’s grades, Eric didn’t even bother to consider them.
So Eric threw himself into his studies, his grades climbing bit by bit. He spent every day waiting for the college entrance exam, dreaming of crushing Evan academically once and for all.
After school that night, Evan stopped by the military barracks to check on the training progress of First Blade and the others.
They ran two hundred laps that day. Even though only a day had passed, everyone’s spirit and posture had improved dramatically.
Of the five, First Blade—Frank Xu—could already throw the Nine-Star Burst Fist’s first punch with a clear sonic boom. The other four were still working on it, but hadn’t grasped the core yet. Evan gave them a few pointers, and they instantly felt enlightened, their respect for his unfathomable skill only growing.
Blade practiced the Nine-Star Burst Fist alongside the others and seemed to gain some insight as well.
Eldest Brother Su heard Evan was at the camp and wanted to meet him, but Evan didn’t bother. After a few quick instructions to the five, he left the barracks and headed home.
On the third morning.
Evan put on the outfit Selina Shi had bought for him. Paired with his coldly handsome face, his entire aura was completely different from before.
As Evan stepped out of his room, he happened to run into Irene Xu, who was beaming with happiness, humming a tune as she walked.